Citrus Growers Try To Juice Things Up

A Grapefruit Council Wants The Government To Require That 25 Percent Of Juice-drink Products Be Real Juice.

June 17, 1997|By Jerry Jackson of The Sentinel Staff

Faced with a record crop and red ink, many of Florida's grapefruit growers would like to get back in the pink by seeing more of their fruit used in blended juice-drink products.

But asking the federal government to require at least 25 percent real juice in any beverage containing grapefruit juice probably won't fly, said Kristen Chadwell Gunter, a former lawyer for the state Citrus Department.

''I personally don't think it has a chance in Washington,'' Gunter said Monday during the Institute of Food Technologists' 1997 Food Expo and annual meeting in Orlando.

A grapefruit advisory council that reports to the Florida Citrus Commission is including the 25 percent rule in a series of recommendations.

The proposal would seek to have the U.S. Food and Drug Administration implement the national standard.

Doing so, growers contend, would boost the nutritional benefits of so-called grapefruit cocktails while using more Florida juice.

Citrus commissioners, who oversee the Citrus Department, are scheduled to consider the proposal and others on Wednesday at the panel's monthly meeting inLakeland.

Florida would be the primary beneficiary of such a 25 percent rule because the state produces four times as many grapefruit as California, Texas and Arizona combined. Florida's current grapefruit harvest is expected to total a record 59 million boxes, or more than 5 billion pounds.

The federal government currently has no minimum juice requirement for juice ''beverages'' or ''cocktails,'' said Clark Jennings, lawyer for the Citrus Department.

Orange juice would also probably benefit from any 25 percent rule, said Mike Sparks, the agency's deputy director, because the government would be unlikely to require a 25 percent minimum for grapefruit juice alone.

''It's an interesting idea that we haven't really fleshed out yet,'' Sparks said.

Gunter, who is now in private practice as a citrus lawyer in Winter Haven, said the Florida citrus industry has a long history of trying to promote its agenda through government regulation or legislation.

Florida's efforts to regulate juice imports, for example, through various quality standards and taxes have had little effect on shipments from countries such as Brazil and Mexico.

Gunter joked that one of the industry's ''top 10'' rules has been: ''We will regulate you to prosperity whether you like it or not.''

Most of Florida's citrus regulations - which date back to the mid-1930s, when the Citrus Commission was created by the Legislature as a self-regulating entity - have benefited consumers, Gunter said.

For example, the industry's decision to impose ''continual inspection'' requirements on juice processors in the state, rather than spot inspections, has resulted in a reputation for high-quality juice.

Tougher sanitation standards could be imposed by the federal government, however, as a result of recent outbreaks of food-borne illnesses around the country, Gunter said.

Earlier this year a major Florida juice processor recalled some of its juice after it had been blended with imported pineapple juice tainted with a bacterium that made dozens of people ill.

The Food Expo, at the Orange County Convention Center, features more than 800 companies displaying their latest technology and services along with nearly 1,400 presentations on everything from fat substitutes to biotechnology.